1 in 4 N.B. small and medium businesses could close because of COVID, says business group

A survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business indicatesone quarter of small to medium sized businesses may not survive the year.

That's concerning for Louis Philippe Gauthier, the senior director of legislative affairs for the federation.

"It reflects what our members are living through," said Gauthier.

"For some of our members the question is you know, 'Do I go on? Do I just pull the plug? Will I have to file for bankruptcy?'"

Gauthier said business is navigating through a dense fog and what's ahead isn't clear.

Multiple things can affect a business's prognosis for survival over the next few months.

Foggy future

This includes how prevalent new strains of the COVID-19 virus become in the province, the health measures put in place in response, changing consumer demandsand the continuance of government programs to help businesses weather the pandemic.

"What's the state of small business once the federal funding [runs out] and how much of the impact of the accumulated debt will have on them?," said Gauthier.

"There's a lot of 'if and when' that's involved in trying to assess how many [businesses] will actually come through."

Gauthier said the shuttering of that manysmall and medium businesses would have far reaching consequences beyond the owners and employees.

"Depending on the amount of businesses, it could have potentially an impact on the provincial coffers. It could have an impact on municipal coffers. At the end of the day businesses do pay property taxes, municipal and provincial," said Gauthier.

He said while both levels of government have put lots of money into programs to help businesses affected by the pandemic, owners stillhave to deal with the ever changing rules around operating in a pandemic, which can change consumer spending patterns, and hurt the business over time.

He said the province should be hammering home the message tosupport smallerbusinesses whenever possible, within the restrictions set up to keep people safe.